Tencent to buy stake in digital map provider Navinfo

BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese IT giant Tencent will buy a 11.28-percent stake in Navinfo, one of the country's major digital map providers, the seller said in its filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday evening.

According to the deal, Navinfo's majority shareholder China Survey will transfer 78 million of Navinfo's shares to Tencent for 1.17 billion yuan (189 million U.S. dollars).

After close of the deal, China Survey's stake in Navinfo will decline to 12.58 percent. The deal is still subject to approval by equity market authorities.

China's Internet companies have shown interest in map service, which is widely deemed a platform that can link online and offline business.

Before the Tencent-Navinfo deal, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba acquired digital map and navigation firm Autonavi earlier this year. The country's largest search engine Baidu has its own map service.